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Much love and appreciation.
***
"Lord, we are sure!" Shea and Winnie said firmly as they looked at each other.
"Okay, if they agree, then the original ten times the amount of mining can be reduced to eight times!" I also gave a little benefit.
'Ten times the amount of mining dropped to eight times; I myself lost a lot, okay?'
"Uh…"
Winnie and Shea were a little speechless. It might as well be nothing, but it is better than nothing!
They could only comfort themselves in this way.
---
Not long after, Winnie and Shea arrived here with a group of yellow and thin tauren warriors; their bodies still had some marks from whips.
Crok was among them.
During this period of time, Crok had suffered a lot of humiliation, thinking that he, as the leader of the Iron Hoof tribe and a nobleman in the half-beast empire, would be forced to mine ore for years without filling his stomach twice a day.
In order to prevent Crok and the others from rebelling against Shadar, the female trolls used some kind of magic to forcibly imprison the magic power of the Tauren warriors.
Wearing heavy chains on their bodies, ten people were connected together so that they had no way to escape.
"Crok, you must listen to me this time!" Winnie looked at Crok the Tauren with a serious expression.
"Winnie… is that you? How come you changed so much?" Crok said, bowing his head.
He didn't want to be seen in his distressed state.
"Yes, it's me. It's all due to Master. Master is just that great!" Winnie said softly, thinking of Barbatos's usual appearance.
Crok looked at Winnie and felt that something in his body was broken…
---
"Master, Crok, and the others agreed!" Winnie didn't notice the lost color in Crok's eyes.
Instead, she happily ran to me and said.
I looked at Crok and the Tauren warriors, and a very small portion of Dragon Might was released. Crok did not dare to look up at my scarlet eyes.
After a few breaths, I restrained my Dragon Might. "Unlock the shackles on them!"
With a wave of Shadar's hand, several troll warriors stepped forward and took out the keys to unlock the chains on Crok and the others.
He was not afraid of these guys rioting.
With Master around, unless these guys really didn't want to live anymore, they had to be honest.
"Do you still have the magic power to trample with iron hooves?" Crok moved his stiff hands and feet. Afraid that being locked in those chains for ten years had made his hands stiff as a rock, he turned to look at the other tauren warriors behind him.
"Boss, we're fine!" several soldiers said.
"Okay, let's get started!"
More than thirty tauren warriors stood together and began to trample with their iron hooves.
Rumbling~
Countless rubble fell from the surrounding mountain walls, and the honeycomb-like mines also began to collapse.
Seeing Crok and the others working so honestly, I nodded.
If they don't work, I can take care of it myself.
It's just a little troublesome.
Thinking of this, I felt a little depressed.
My earth affinity is very powerful, but unfortunately, time is too tight.
Otherwise, learning advanced earth spells like earthquakes would be enough to solve the current problem.
It has been less than twenty years since I came to this world with all my plans.
There is so much to do.
Slowly, the mine in front of everyone calmed down.
I saw that a hole with a diameter of about 100 meters was formed at the location of the original mine, which was almost bottomless.
I took a look, and it turned out that the cave dug by the burrower was an upside-down funnel.
The upper openings were narrow, but the lower ones were wide.
Such a large space is enough for me to go down.
Thinking of this, I flew down.
"Shadar, continue to put the shackles on them. Winnie will go with me; everyone else is waiting here!"
I grabbed Winnie, then bent down and rushed directly.
Crok watched me leave and clenched his fists, and finally obediently asked the troll warrior to put chains on him.
I soon reached the ground.
There is a huge oblique cave here, and this should be the tunnel dug by those diggers.
"Winnie, lurk in and check the situation first. If you are discovered, run away immediately. Safety first!" I told Winnie.
The main reason for bringing Winnie is her powerful investigative ability.
"Don't worry, my Lord!" Winnie saluted, and then her body and the surrounding space slowly merged into one.
I didn't run down to kill some bugs because of my hotheadedness.
First of all, these guys seriously affected the mining work.
Second, it's almost time for the feast.
I wanted to find some suitable main ingredients, as even I get bored of eating evil eye shorma.
Other low-level monsters are not qualified to become staple food at all.
So this rare earth digger became a target of mine, and I very much hoped that the earth digger could transform successfully.
In fact, what I thought was that if there were really no suitable ingredients, then I would try to see if I could get trampled by the tauren's iron hooves…
But this is a last resort…
Oh, and by the way, I activated Earth Sense—a skill naturally granted by my earth mana affinity. It's an advanced earth-type detection ability that allows me to feel the terrain and everything connected to it with unparalleled precision. Oddly enough, like many of my other abilities, it doesn't appear on my stat panel, making it one of those hidden talents that eludes direct measurement. Nonetheless, its value is undeniable, offering me an almost instinctual connection to the ground beneath me. Of course, I have to be touching the ground for this to work.
So after a search, nothing wrong was found.
A few minutes later, I suddenly heard a strange roar.
My gaze turned to the tunnel in front of me.
"What exactly is going on?"
---
In the tunnel, Winnie fled in embarrassment.
Originally, she had already used the talent of the Shadowcats to sneak into the land of the diggers.
She even passed by some vigilant diggers without being seen.
Seeing this, she knew that the diggers should not be able to find her, so she boldly lurked inside.
With a roar, all the diggers suddenly seemed to see Winnie.
They started attacking where she was.
Winnie had no choice but to show up to defend herself.
In the chaos, she could only run while defending, and she was soon hounded.
As a result, these diggers seemed even more excited when they smelled blood!
Their speed increased significantly.
Boom~
A dozen or so burrowers suddenly appeared on the ground in front of Winnie.
The diggers on both sides blocked Winnie in this tunnel.
Winnie looked suspiciously at the diggers slowly surrounding her!
Diggers shouldn't be as smart as insect monsters!
They can still use tactics!
Winnie stretched out her sharp claws and collided fiercely with an earth digger that rushed over.
The cat's claw directly opened a hole in the burrower's abdomen, and disgusting mucus flowed out.
Winnie didn't make up the knife anymore, but directly retreated quickly; taking advantage of this opportunity, the other diggers had already pounced on her!
She didn't try to use her talent to blend into the space again.
Because she had just tried, even if she was invisible, these bugs would still find her position, so it was better to save magic power.
This is the second time Winnie has encountered a situation where she can directly decipher her Shadow Cat talent.
And it is different from Master Barbatos's method; the difference is quite big.
Lord used some kind of sound wave to break the operation of the magic power in her body in order to achieve the cracking effect.
But if Winnie had hidden directly beside Barbatos at the beginning, Barbatos would not have found out.
And these bugs could!
It's as if someone was showing them the way.
Just as Winnie continued to escape, a glowing stone wall in front of her blocked her way, and Winnie knew that it was a huge rough crystal ore.
She knew the hardness of magic crystal.
But the other bugs that were chasing her backed out as quickly as if they sensed something.
Winnie suddenly exploded, and she quickly moved aside.
Boom~
The ground broke directly, and a hideous-looking bug's head came out from under the ground.
The front end stood upright for more than 15 meters, and the body length was at least 20.
The yellow carapace was covered with spikes; the huge jaws of the mouth were dripping with mucus, and a pair of small black eyes looked at Winnie as if they were looking at a piece of meat.
"Digger Demonic Insect!!!"
Winnie knew that this was the transformed Digger; this powerful aura marked it as a high-order monster.
For a moment, the identities of the two parties seemed to be reversed, and Winnie seemed to have become a bug at this time.
The Digger looked at the prey in front of it. It had eaten many humanoid creatures before and knew that this prey was extremely delicious.
The food prepared before this transformation had long since been eaten.
It was already hungry and thirsty, so it dispersed those ordinary diggers and planned to enjoy it by itself.
The moment the Digger bug pounced on her, it suddenly jumped out step by step as if it had sensed something.
"Lord!"
Winnie said in surprise.
She had the confidence to come here because she knew that Lord Barbatos would definitely come to save her!
The earth-digging monster roared furiously.
Looking at the enemy Digger in front of him, although his IQ is not very high and he has never seen a true dragon, he also knows that this guy is not easy to mess with.
"Is this the Digger Worm? Interesting!"
I eyed the massive creature with a smirk as its charged sneak attack missed me by a wide margin. Even in my shrunk state, dodging was effortless. The Digger Worm's size may have surpassed mine, but it wasn't nearly enough to make me feel threatened.
Dozens of ordinary earth diggers began crawling from the darkness, their shrill roars joining the larger beast's cries. They surrounded me in a futile attempt to intimidate me, but I couldn't be bothered with these lesser creatures. Without hesitation, I unleashed my Dragon's Might.
The force rippled through the air, a pulse of power so intense that the ordinary diggers trembled and howled. My presence weighed on them like a crushing boulder, pushing their bodies into the ground. Yet despite their discomfort, they pressed forward, driven by instinct.
"Winnie, find a safe place to hide," I said, my voice calm as ever. She nodded and quickly retreated while I set my sights on the real prize—the Digger Worm itself.
The smaller creatures tried to bite and scratch at me, but their pathetic efforts barely left marks on my scales. Their jaws and legs couldn't even scratch my defenses. Annoying pests.
The Digger Worm, too, was affected by my Dragon's Might, but it fought through the discomfort, charging straight at me. Bold move.
"{Fifth Tier: Flame Blast!}"
I gathered my magic and unleashed a torrent of roaring flames, the heat so intense it could turn iron to slag. The fiery river surged toward the Digger Worm, engulfing it. When the flames died down, the worm's carapace was singed and blackened but otherwise intact.
"His..."
Suddenly, the Digger vanished. It had burrowed underground. I frowned, activating my Earth Sense, but it revealed little. Somehow, the worm had hidden itself well.
'Planning a sneak attack, are we?'
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, the stone wall beside me shattered. The Digger burst from the ground, latching onto me with its powerful legs. The two of us tumbled, crushing several of the smaller diggers under our combined weight.
It tried to pierce my body with its legs, but my scales were too strong. Frustrated, it lunged for my neck with its powerful jaws, aiming for a fatal bite.
Crack!
I heard its jaws splinter against my thick, armored neck. I let out a short laugh. My neck, covered in curved dragon horns that extended like the frill of a Triceratops, was far too well-protected for such a pitiful attempt. The Digger might as well have been biting solid rock.
Realizing its mistake, the worm tried again to skewer me with its legs, but I didn't give it the chance. With a burst of strength, I clamped my jaws down on its neck. The worm's neck was short, but I managed to bite through its bone plate, shattering it with ease.
The creature let out a desperate shriek and retaliated by spitting acid at me, drenching my face in its foul bile.
I spat in disgust. "You're filthy! Have some decency, would you?"
My irritation flared. Grabbing its jaws with both claws, I forced its mouth wide open. It struggled, thrashing its body wildly, but my grip held firm.
The atomic furnace within me flared to life, my core burning like a star. I gathered my breath and unleashed a freezing, blue-white mist into the creature's open mouth. The Digger Worm convulsed violently as my icy breath tore through its insides, freezing its soft organs.
Its struggles grew weaker until finally, its massive body went limp in my grasp. Dead.
I tossed the worm's corpse aside, ripping off its head in a show of dominance. The remaining earth diggers scattered in fear, fleeing the scene now that their leader had fallen.
I stood there, victorious, glancing down at myself. To my amusement, I hadn't even sustained the slightest injury. Aside from a few faint white marks on my scales, there wasn't a scratch. Even the acid from my opponent, which was meant to corrode and disfigure, did nothing more than coat me in its vile stench—more irritating than dangerous. My scales shrugged off the attack with ease, leaving me more disgusted than harmed and thoroughly enraged at the sheer filth of it.
As the last of the lesser diggers vanished into the darkness, I couldn't help but chuckle. "That was almost too easy."
---
"Master is amazing!"
Winnie jumped to my side and was shocked to see the huge worm corpse still smoking on the ground.
This earth-digging monster is so fierce and powerful, but it has almost no power to fight back against the Master.
I knew what Winnie was thinking.
In fact, the strength of the Digger Worm is indeed very strong.
Its carapace is extremely hard, and its bite force is amazing; it can escape the ground.
And spit acid!
Insect monsters are inherently strong, but the huge size of the earth-digging monster gave it extremely powerful strength.
Ordinary creatures really can't handle it.
Even if one meets a red dragon in youth, one can wrestle with your wrists.
But I just bluntly overwhelmed it.
In terms of defense, mine is stronger than it, and in terms of bite force, I'm a few miles away from it.
***
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